Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Sep;15(9):980-986.
doi: 10.1002/dta.3515. Epub 2023 May 18.

Hair testing applied to the assessment of in utero exposure to drugs: Critical analysis of 51 cases of the University Hospital of Verona

Anna Bertaso  1 , Rossella Gottardo  1 , Matilde Murari  1 , Mara Mazzola  1 , Nadia Maria Porpiglia  1 , Francesco Taus  1   2 , Renzo Beghini  3 , Fabio Gandini  4 , Federica Bortolotti  1
Affiliations

Hair testing applied to the assessment of in utero exposure to drugs: Critical analysis of 51 cases of the University Hospital of Verona

Anna Bertaso et al. Drug Test Anal. 2023 Sep.

Abstract

The work discusses the results of hair and urine testing performed in 51 cases of suspected in utero drug exposure handled at the University Hospital of Verona from 2016 to 2022. On the day of birth or the day after birth, urine from mother and newborn (UM and UN) and hair from mother (HM), newborn (HN) and father (HF), if possible, were collected. Urine underwent immunoassay and GC-MS analysis, whereas hair underwent LC-MS/MS and GC-MS/MS analysis. In 50 out of 51 cases, HM and/or HN were available. In 92% of them, hair testing resulted in a positive, often (>50% cases) for more than one class of substance. The most detected substances were cocaine, opiates, methadone and cannabinoids. Maternal segmental analysis showed a prevalent decreasing concentration trend during pregnancy in case of positivity for one class of substances, whereas, as expected, a neatly prevalent increasing trend in the case of positivity for more than one class of substances. In nine cases, HF was also available, resulting in all being positive, usually for the same classes of substances identified in HM, thus questioning parental responsibility. In 33 cases, urine samples from the mother or newborn were also collected. Of them, 27 cases (82%) tested positive, showing peri-partum drug consumption and then confirming the severity of the addiction. Hair testing showed to be a reliable diagnostic tool to investigate in utero drug exposure because of the possibility of obtaining a complete picture of maternal addictive behaviour and family background, thanks to segmental maternal hair analysis and father hair testing.

Keywords: illicit drugs; pregnancy; prenatal exposure; segmental hair analysis.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. National Institute on Drug Abuse, Substance use while pregnant and breast feeding. Accessed on 27 December 2022. https://nida.nih.gov/publications/research-reports/substance-use-in-wome...
    1. Marchei E, Rotolo MC, Mannocchi G, et al. Assessment of licit and illicit drugs consumption during pregnancy by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS) target screening in Mexican women hair. J Pharm Biomed Anal. 2022;211:114607. doi:10.1016/j.jpba.2022.114607
    1. Hetea A, Cosconel C, Stanescu AAM, Simionescu AA. Alcohol and psychoactive drugs in pregnancy. Maedica (Bucur). 2019;14(4):397-401. doi:10.26574/maedica.2019.14.4.397
    1. Minnes S, Lang A, Singer L. Prenatal tobacco, marijuana, stimulant, and opiate exposure: outcomes and practice implications. Addict Sci Clin Pract. 2011;6(1):57-70.
    1. Barry JM, Birnbaum AK, Jasin LR, Sherwin CM. Maternal exposure and neonatal effects of drugs of abuse. J Clin Pharmacol. 2021;61(Suppl 2):S142-S155. doi:10.1002/jcph.1928